


Greeks (or Maybe Alien) Bearing Gifts

by Fionn_Sgeul



Series: Midnight Garden [8]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, BAMF Gwen Cooper, Dealing with Betrayal, Episode: s01e07 Greeks Bearing Gifts, Fae & Fairies, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Gwen Cooper and Gwyneth the Maid are the same person, Gwen is older and wiser and may have gone slightly off her rocker at some point, Gwen isn't human, Protective Gwen, Recovering from loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:13:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26693530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionn_Sgeul/pseuds/Fionn_Sgeul
Summary: All Tosh wanted to do is help people. To protect the world.Then came Mary and her mind-reading pendant, and between them they tore Tosh's belief in humanity apart.Fortunately, the Torchwood team now includes a wacky, centuries-old faerie who has been through the wringer enough times to know how to help someone through it.Sometimes we all need reminding that humanity isn't as bad as mind-reading pendants might make them look.
Relationships: Gwen Cooper & Toshiko Sato
Series: Midnight Garden [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/491872
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Greeks (or Maybe Alien) Bearing Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this story definitely is not my favourite of the Midnight Garden 'verse. It was really tricky because I was trying not to rehash episodes and to instead focus on what is new and interesting, but that was hard with Greeks Bearing Gifts because so much of it is all Tosh and her personal issues. There was a limit to how much the addition of FaeGwen was going to affect that. So I skimmed quickly over the parts that are more or less the same as in the episode and focused on the parts that are different in this AU. I hope the skimming bits aren't boring. Apologies if they are, and feel free to skip them!
> 
> BTW, this is the last full installment from what I wrote back in 2016. I do still have several more partial stories, as well as a planned arc leading to the end of Series 1. I'm going to have a go at getting my head back into this world to see if I can finish it, but it has been four years, so I can't promise.

Tosh came into work through the Tourist Office, as usual. She hit the button to open the secret door and, while she waited, pulled the pendant out of her bag, curiosity burning a hole in her mind. Surely just a brief look wouldn't matter—

Her mind was jerked away by Ianto coming through the secret door in front of her, heading for his office. Tosh hid the pendant behind her back and tried to act normal as Ianto wished her good morning with a bland smile.

"Yeah! …Hi … Ianto." Okay, Operation Act Normal a total failure, then. Ianto didn't call her on it, though. His mind seemed on other things. If Tosh had been wearing the pendant, maybe she'd be able to tell what…

Ianto disappeared into his office, and Tosh carefully put the powerful little artefact around her neck.

The world burst open around her mind. She was surrounded by the whisper of distant voices. A whirl of thoughts and feelings lay just at the edge of her reach. She could just make out Ianto's voice in it all, his thoughts all about some section of the archives Jack had managed to mess up while looking for something. Tosh left him to it.

The great gear door rolled aside, and she stepped into the Hub. The first thoughts she heard were Owen's.

 _'What the hell would produce such a perfect circular puncture? Maybe some kind of wooden stake…'_ Still thinking about the skeleton from the construction site, then. "Hey, Tosh," he said aloud as he passed. _'She better not go into one about the computer again,'_ he thought. Owen and Suzie had been mucking about the day before and had knocked the power cable out of Tosh's computer while it was in the middle of a translation sequence. Tosh had had to start it over from scratch. She'd been more than a little upset. _'Last thing I need is another "you are an insensitive wanker" glare from Gwen,'_ Owen's sulky thought went on. _'I know I'm an insensitive wanker, thank you.'_

Tosh blinked at him in surprise, and not just for the unexpected piece of self-knowledge. Gwen had gone after him for that?

She became aware of some vague, innocuous thoughts coming off Suzie. _'Ah, coffee. Why can't any other coffee be as good as Ianto's coffee? E-mail — should check e-mail. Did I reply to Henderson?'_ "Morning," she said aloud.

"Morning," Tosh said back.

Tosh looked — and listened — for Gwen, but she was nowhere in evidence. That was disappointing. Tosh had very much wondered what her thoughts would be like. What did a three-hundred-year-old faerie think about as she went about her day? Then again, maybe it was just as well. It would probably be something depressingly ordinary, like where she'd put her comb.

Tosh opened her mouth to tell them she had something to show them, but at that moment, Suzie thought, _'Could I really do it?'_ A wave of uncertainty and longing came off her. _'I want it — god, I want it — I've never wanted anything more. But what if it turns me into a monster? A monster — what if I become one of the things Torchwood exists to take down?'_

Tosh looked at Suzie. She was staring off into space, hands hovering over a forgotten keyboard, a furrow between her brows. _'It would be freedom — real **life**. I want it. I want it. But I'm so afraid…'_

What the hell was that about? Tosh shut her mouth, hoping to hear more. But Suzie's mind had moved back to e-mail. Tosh let her fade into background noise and shoved away Owen's vivid visualisation of the wound in the skeleton's ribcage and how it could have been inflicted. Tosh's own mind was in a whirl. A monster? Suzie was afraid of being turned into a monster? By what? What was she working with? Nothing that could do something like that, surely. Had she told Jack about whatever this was?

Now that was one question Tosh did know the answer to. Suzie wasn't one to talk about her problems. None of them were, except maybe Tosh herself, if she only had the right ear. Whatever Suzie was so afraid of, Tosh would bet money that she hadn't told anyone about it. Probably wouldn't tell anyone unless it blew up. And then it might be too late.

Tosh closed her hand over the pendant. She should tell them about it … but … but … she could do it later. No reason it had to be now, had to be today. She could wait, listen…

***

Tosh regretted waiting and listening. She caught a few more flickers of Suzie's worry, but she also caught Suzie glancing up at Owen and considering taking him to her bed that night. He was a passable shag, in Suzie's opinion, and she needed a distraction from her troubles.

The realisation that Suzie and Owen were sleeping together hit Tosh like a thunderclap. How could she not have _noticed_?! And they'd clearly been doing it a while, if Suzie was so casual about it. And Tosh had just been sitting there, midway between their desks, fancying Owen and totally oblivious.

And then, just a flicker across Suzie's mind, _'Poor, lonely Tosh. Wonder when was the last time she had a shag?'_

Tosh ran away to the conference room after that. She couldn't stand to be in the same room with either of them. She could have taken the pendant off, but that wouldn't have taken away what she knew. She sat at the table, pretending to herself that she was working and really just sitting with her head leaning on her hand and trying to come to terms with the death of her hopes for Owen.

And just as bad, maybe _worse_ , was the fact that they _pitied_ her. Poor lonely Tosh. She hadn't been paying nearly as much attention to Owen as to Suzie, but she'd caught one or two similar thoughts off him when she'd interacted with him. Poor Tosh who didn't know how to have fun, who only cared about translation programmes and not about finding time to _enjoy_ herself.

She couldn't bear it.

And then Ianto came in, tidying up the plates and biscuits that had been left on the table after lunch. And his thoughts washed over her. _'Oh my Lisa. God, I miss you so much. It's like an ache — like a cinderblock on my chest. It hurts. I want to follow you, Lisa, but I'm afraid. If I do this, there's no going back.'_

Tosh swung around to stare at him. That couldn't mean… _Oh god, please, please, please don't tell me Ianto is suicidal_. Just when she thought the day couldn't get worse, it did.

Ianto caught her looking and offered another of his bland little smiles. "I'm about to brew some of Jack's industrial-strength coffee. Would you like a cup?"

How could he act so normal with _that_ going on in his head? "I'm … I'm fine, thanks, Ianto," she told him, trying to pump real gratitude into her voice. She wanted to scream, _God, don't do it! We need you, Ianto. Please don't do anything foolish!_

Her mind began to race. How could she talk him out of it without revealing what she'd heard? Or should she just explain the pendant and _tell_ him what she'd heard? He might get angry … it was an invasion of privacy, no two ways about it. God, she couldn't bear having people angry with her on top of everything else…

Ianto had turned to go, and his thoughts were continuing. _'It can't be that bad, surely… Gwen seems happy. Or is that just a façade? Is she really just as miserable as the rest of us? No … no she's not. Can't be. She's the happiest person I know … when she isn't being terrifying. And that's what I'm really afraid of, isn't it? Being terrifying, being dangerous. Being out of control.'_

Tosh stared after him as he went out of range. That … that hadn't sounded like contemplating suicide. That had sounded a lot more like…

People could become faeries, couldn't they? They'd actually seen it happen with Jasmine Pierce and the Little People. And Gwen had said … she'd said…

Oh.

Tosh relaxed. Well that wasn't so bad, then. She could think of worse things than Ianto turning faerie. Though she did wonder about this Lisa. Ianto's thoughts of her had been filled with such love and longing that it took Tosh's breath away.

A lover — had to be, and a serious one. Had she become a faerie? Or had she been one already and gone home, and now Ianto was trying to follow her, be with her?

A small, sad smile crossed Tosh's face. God, that was sweet. Like a fairy tale — or, well, a _faerie_ tale. Tosh just hoped that Gwen was aware of what was going on here. Surely Ianto wouldn't go and try to do this without consulting her … well, actually, maybe he would. Tosh had started to realise after the Cybermen incident that there was a whole side of Ianto no one ever saw. But Gwen would find out. Gwen was spooky good at things like that.

Tosh bit her lip, suddenly having _very serious doubts_ about her ability to get the pendant past Gwen.

But if Gwen did notice … well, there was no one Tosh would rather discuss it with. Jack came a pretty close second, but he sometimes went all cold judgement how-could-you-have-been-so-stupid on you. Gwen didn't do that, even when you probably deserved it. The worst Tosh had seen her give a member of the team was a disappointed now-I-know-you-know-better-than-that reaction.

The worst Tosh had seen her give people outside the team was a horror Tosh tried not to think about.

***

That night was one of the greatest upheavals in Tosh's life. She found Mary waiting for her outside her house. Tosh basically blew up at her, telling her about all the horrid things the pendant had shown her and how she wished she'd never seen the damned thing. Mary told her that reading someone's mind wasn't like reading their diary, and you shouldn't take fleeting little throwaway thoughts to heart. She told Tosh the pendant could do good and put it back on her to show her.

They somehow ended up in bed together after that. Tosh had never had sex with a woman before. The disapproval of her parents, even though they were dead and gone, hung over her like a dark cloud. She didn't know what to do with her feelings, her emotions.

But she knew she was still bloody angry about Owen and Suzie.

The next morning, she took Mary's advice and went to go wear the pendant in a public street. She heard all kinds of things — innocuous, hilarious, potentially incriminating … and then came the man with the fishing-pole case over his shoulder, thinking about murder.

Tosh nearly lost him in the crowd. But she focussed on his thoughts of how he planned to commit suicide afterward and managed to follow them. She followed him all the way to his ex-wife's house and slipped in after him. As he took the shotgun out of the fishing-pole case and explained to his ex-wife and child that this way everything would be all right, they'd all be together, Tosh was making a frantic and silent search for a suitable weapon.

She found a golf club.

***

Tosh came into work still riding a wave of euphoria. She'd saved two innocent lives today, and one guilty one … well, almost-guilty one. That child would have a life because of her, and his mother had sobbed her thanks on Tosh's shoulder. It had been a long time since anything had felt that good. It was her sweet, happy secret as she walked into the Hub to hear Suzie and Jack teasing Owen for being completely wrong in his original prognosis over the skeleton from the building site.

It turned out that their female killed by a gunshot was actually a young male (very girly male, said Owen), killed by unknown trauma to the chest that definitely was not a gunshot wound. Oops?

Tosh smiled to see the three of them laughing, but she couldn't join in. Even though the pendant currently resided in her pocket, the things she'd heard still hung over her. She looked at Suzie and wondered what she was hiding. Damn it, she needed someone to talk to…

"Where's Gwen?" she asked Jack. Gwen hadn't been in at all the day before, not that her absence was particularly unusual.

"Taking a little Zen time. She actually asked first, and I said yes because I figured I should reward the whole asking thing. Behavioural reinforcement, y'know." He flashed a grin. "And also because I've seen not-Zen Gwen, and she's — how should I put this…"

"Worrying?" offered Tosh. Gwen in the wake of the Cannibal Incident had worried them all. When she got that look in her eye, you couldn't help feeling that she might do anything.

"I was thinking more along the lines of spine-chilling, but yeah, that too."

***

Tosh went to lunch with Mary that day and told her about her little fit of heroism. Mary had been right: the pendant _could_ do good, if you used it right. Mary kissed her, right there in full view of everyone in the café. Tosh felt a terrific rush of muddled emotion — embarrassed, self-conscious, delighted, flattered, proud. She'd never been so daring in her life. It was thrilling.

Then Mary asked her about the alien machine they'd found. When Tosh admitted that Jack had taken it, Mary asked why. After all, Tosh was their tech genius. Why was she stuck with admin work, secretary stuff? Why wasn't Jack telling them anything?

Tosh defended both Jack and her own role on the team, but the voice of doubt was already niggling. Why indeed?

Tosh brought two cups of coffee with her back to work, intending to use them to start conversation with Owen and Suzie and ask whether they knew anything. Owen was still puzzling over the body in the med bay. He responded to the offer of coffee with a delighted, "Oh, you are gorgeous!" Tosh felt a burst of warmth in her belly before she quashed it. _No hope, remember,_ she told herself.

Owen, it turned out, hadn't heard anything from Jack either. And he wasn't bothered; his mind was entirely on the problem of the strange hole in the ribcage of the two-hundred-year-old skeleton.

"Not still worrying about that, are you?" asked Tosh.

"Okay, so I'm thinking if it isn't a gunshot — or a musket shot or whatever they had then — maybe it's some kind of ritual." He stood up from bending over the skeleton and started pacing, sipping his coffee. "So I started looking into, uh, devil worship and stuff from that era, see if there's anything about plucking out hearts, and would you believe it, there's nothing!" He heaved a sigh. "They ate eyeballs, they drank blood, they had _sex_ with _animals_ , but they did _not_ pluck out each other's hearts, because obviously, that would have been _weird_."

Tosh chuckled. "Why are you so bothered? Whoever did this is hardly a threat to society anymore."

"Yeah, I know," said Owen, leaning back in again. "It's just … there's something…" He indicated the hole in the ribs. "Does that remind you of anything?"

 _No, but obviously it reminds you of something._ But Tosh did try to think of something. "Um … that bit in 'Alien' where that thing bursts out of John Hurt?"

"Hmm, I'm sorry," said Owen dryly. "I should have been more specific. Does that remind you of anything _helpful_?"

"No, sorry."

He chuckled. "Right. Just go over there, do your computer stuff and think about shoes, eh? Thank you."

Tosh felt a stab of annoyance at the shoes comment, but she doubted it was meant as a barb, and Owen had seriously asked her opinion before chasing her off. Owen always made flippant comments. Ordinarily, Tosh found them amusing, but today … since the pendant…

She tracked down Suzie next. Suzie hadn't heard anything from Jack either, and unlike Owen she was perishingly curious.

"He knows what it is, or has a pretty good idea," she said, scowling at some innocent piece of twisted metal on her desk. "And it must be something dangerous, something he doesn't want us messing with. Otherwise, why keep it to himself?"

She was right; Jack was happy to let them mess with stuff he knew was relatively safe, but it wouldn't be the first time he squirrelled away something dangerous. But he hadn't really squirrelled this thing away, had he? It was sitting out on a table in Jack's workshop in one of the upper rooms. So why wasn't he telling them anything?

"Have you asked him about it?" asked Tosh.

"Yeah. Said he was still working on it. Is the man allergic to straight answers, or something?"

Tosh had wondered the same thing herself more than once. "Sometimes I think so." They shared a commiserating half-smile at their boss's incurable bent toward being enigmatic.

***

Tosh stewed over the issue of Jack's secretiveness for another night before deciding to use the pendant. She had a sinking feeling that reading her boss's mind was yet another thing that could get her fired, but she was in deep enough now that it didn't seem to make much difference.

So she put on the pendant and went to look at the alien machine in Jack's workshop. It looked more like a double-ended claw than a machine, really. But before she could come up with anything more, Jack popped in and informed her that he'd heard about her little foray into vigilantism the previous day. Tosh tried to brush it off, explain it away as just a fluke, but she was sure Jack saw straight through her.

Flustered, she had one last go at asking about the machine. All Jack would say was, "It's ongoing," and she got a hard stare when she pushed. Her frustration hit a peak. _Why_ wouldn't he _talk_ to them, tell them _anything_?

She turned to go, and as she did, she realised that she hadn't got one thought off Jack during their entire exchange. Not even a flicker. Well, she'd just have to go looking. She paused in the doorway and reached for Jack's mind.

Nothing. It was like an empty void, like there was no one in there. She turned to stare at him and found him staring back, an odd expression on his face. Had he— could he have _felt_ that?

"What? Have I got something on my face? Is it food?" he asked, suddenly back to normal Jack flippancy. He rubbed his mouth with the heel of his hand.

Tosh turned and tried to flee without looking like she was fleeing.

Well, now she had the final proof: there was Something Weird about Jack.

***

Tosh was still mulling over her strange encounter with Jack when she suddenly registered that she was hearing music. She blinked and looked around. Who was playing music? She glanced over at Owen and Suzie's desks, but Owen wasn't there and the music really wasn't Suzie's style — traditional, folksy, the sort of music you'd get in a Celtic pub on a jam night. Jigging music.

"Where's that music coming from?" she asked.

Suzie looked up. "What music?"

And then suddenly Gwen was bounding down from the catwalks above — Tosh was pretty sure she was getting in through Myfanwy's nest high above and wondered whether Jack had worked that out yet — dancing and humming along to the music as she went. _Oh_ , realised Tosh. No wonder Suzie couldn't hear the music. It was all in Gwen's head.

"Hallooooo!" Gwen called cheerfully, and bright, energetic, disorienting thoughts burst across Tosh's mind. Images, colour, music, emotions, and words all muddled together. Tosh flinched under their onslaught and tried to sort through them. Gwen was like that entire pub full of people that first night, all by herself. Tosh tried to focus on Gwen's voice the way she'd focussed on Mary's.

 _'Suzie! Suzie, Suzie. She looks well. Smart, capable Suzie. She needs more joy.'_ Vaguely, Tosh heard Gwen and Suzie greet each other. But she paid more attention to Gwen's mental voice, which was all excitement and simple joy, like a happy Labrador greeting a friend. The words were strange, though. They didn't feel right.

As Gwen and Suzie talked, Tosh stayed ducked down behind her computer and tried to make sense of what was going on in Gwen's head. She wasn't making head nor tail of half of it. And then it dawned on her that, of course, Gwen was thinking in Welsh.

Tosh could still kind of understand her because thoughts don't work in spoken words, but rather the concepts _behind_ those words. But things didn't really fully translate. When Gwen used a Welsh word for which there was no English or Japanese equivalent, Tosh just got the Welsh word and not nearly enough time to work out what it meant. And even when the words all translated, the grammar and syntax, the patterns of thought, were different and disorienting.

Fascinating, thought Tosh, that spoken language still had an effect when you were reading someone's mind. A different language really was a different way of viewing the world. Reading Gwen's mind was like viewing the world through a different prism, even without all the flutter of music and emotion and imagery that Tosh was guessing were faerie things.

And then the focus of Gwen's thoughts changed, and Tosh realised with alarm that they were all coming towards her. _'Tosh! Love Tosh. Clever Tosh, brilliant Tosh. Busy, busy Tosh. What's she doing?'_

Tosh looked up and did her best to give Gwen a normal smile when she could barely even see straight and thought her eyes might be tearing up on top of that. "Hi, Gwen. Glad you're back." And she really was. Here was someone who was simply, joyfully pleased to see her, and who thought she was _brilliant_.

 _Mary was right_ , Tosh thought. _Not everyone is a petty little twit when you see inside them_.

The tone of Gwen's thoughts changed. _'Something is wrong with Tosh. Headache? Migraine? Owen?'_ And then there was something Tosh couldn't make out about what Gwen would do with Owen if he'd upset Tosh again. Tosh thought she caught a flicker of an image of something bent being forcibly straightened out.

"Tosh? What's wrong?" Gwen asked her, softly enough that Suzie wouldn't hear. She was right in Tosh's face now, frowning at her and radiating concern.

Tosh hesitated. She suddenly, desperately wanted to spill everything. But how much trouble would she get into? Would Gwen tell Jack? Oh god, what if she lost her _job_?

Gwen waited her out, and her thoughts, now coming through in such clear English that Tosh suspected Gwen was only just holding herself back from actually _saying_ them, said, _'Come on, Tosh, talk to me. Let me help.'_ And then, less clear again, coming from deeper, _'Mine, protect, my Toshiko, **my** youngling.'_

The wave of possessiveness was disconcerting, reminding Tosh as it did of the Little People hissing, _"Ours, always ours!"_ Faeries were faeries, she supposed, even when they genuinely cared about you.

"Can I…" Tosh swallowed, "…talk to you? Privately?"

***

They retreated to the conference room and Gwen shut the door. Tosh stood staring at the opposite wall for a long moment. She took a deep breath, turned to Gwen, and said all in rush, "I've got a pendant that lets me read people's minds."

A long pause marked the very first time Tosh had ever seen Gwen caught completely and entirely off guard. Even her mind went blank. "…What?"

Tosh yanked off the pendant and held it up. "This pendant. When you wear it, you can hear other people's thoughts."

Gwen's eyes flicked from Tosh to the pendant. She reached out and gently plucked it from Tosh's hand. Tosh sighed as it left her grip, feeling like a heavy pack had been lifted off her shoulders. Gwen cradled the pendant in her hands and stared at it, turning to one side. Tosh wondered what she could sense, whether she could feel its powers even when it was just in her hands.

But Gwen's puzzled frown didn't change, and after a thorough examination, she carefully raised the pendant and fastened it around her neck.

Tosh saw the moment that it took effect. Gwen jerked, flinched, and grimaced.

 _'Can you hear me?'_ Tosh tried, thinking as loudly as she could in Gwen's direction.

Gwen's response was to mumble something in Welsh that Tosh was guessing was swear words. She wrenched the pendant off her neck and stared at it, rubbing her forehead. "Dear sweet Mother Nature," she murmured. She looked up at Tosh. "Where on earth did you get this?"

"Off a woman I met in a pub," said Tosh. "A scavenger — someone who hunts alien artefacts. She said it had been in her family a long time."

["…You go to much more interesting pubs than I do. Unless you count faerie pubs. Nothing's more interesting than a faerie pub."]

"Why did she give it to you?"

"She knew who I was. These scavengers, they apparently keep an eye on Torchwood — we're sort of in the same business, as it were. And there are all sorts of things you can dig up on the internet, if you know where to look."

Gwen raised an eyebrow and held up the pendant. "With a thing like this, you could dig it up from other places, too."

That thought had crossed Tosh's mind. She acknowledged it with a half-hearted nod. "She said … it gets to you after a while — makes you see people differently. And … and she was right." Suddenly Tosh was fighting tears, and Gwen was right in front of her, standing with her hands on Tosh's shoulders, just the way Tosh's mother had when she had seen Tosh was upset.

"You've been wearing it around here, haven't you?"

Tosh nodded mutely, sniffling.

"And Owen's just as much an insensitive prat inside as outside, isn't he?"

Tosh nodded with a wet chuckle. "They pity me," she burst out, voice wobbly with tears. "Owen and Suzie. They pity me."

Gwen made a breathy little "Ahh" sound and shook her head, putting an arm around Tosh's shoulders. "They're young fools who can't wrap their heads around the fact that what's important and fun to you might not be the same as what's important and fun to them. The fact that you don't drown your sorrows in alcohol and sex doesn't mean you're to be pitied."

"They're not that young," mumbled Tosh, crossing her arms. But she leaned into Gwen with warmth spreading through her. Then she remembered who she was talking to. "Well, I s'pose compared to you…"

Gwen chuckled. "You lot are about one tenth my age, and Ianto's not even that. I can't help seeing you as kids sometimes. Well, 'cept maybe Jack." She winced. "You haven't gone wandering into one of his sexual fantasies wearing that thing, have you?"

Tosh snorted with laughter. "No, that's the funny thing: I can't get anything off him at all. It's like he's empty … a void. And I think he noticed when I tried."

Gwen made an interested noise. "He may have been trained to resist telepathic invasion. Like in Harry Potter, you know — Occlumency."

Tosh giggled outright. "You are joking."

"I'm serious! He's led a mad, interesting life, that man, and he knows all kinds of strange things. It's not impossible, or even all that unlikely."

Tosh mulled that over and had to admit that it made sense, actually. If anybody in the world would be trained for this sort of thing, it would be Jack. The thought was actually kind of reassuring — a nice reasonable explanation that fed into the fact that Jack was a total badass.

"There's … something else," Tosh said hesitantly, calling Gwen's attention back away from the pendant. She turned to face Tosh and leaned back against the table. Tosh wavered for a moment. What she wanted to say represented a big invasion of privacy, but if there was anyone she could trust it with…

"It's something I overheard from Suzie. …And Ianto, come to that."

"Ah," said Gwen slowly as Tosh wavered again. "I think I might know where you're going, on both counts."

"Do you?" said Tosh with sweeping relief. "Because it really worried me."

Gwen crossed her arms. "I'm guessing that this has something to do with the fact that they're both, for their own individual reasons, in turmoil over the idea of possibly becoming faeries."

Tosh's brow furrowed. " _Both_? But Suzie was afraid of turning into a monster…" She trailed off as Gwen fixed her with a meaningful stare.

"Tosh, think about how horrible I could be if I wanted to. Or even if I just let my emotions get out of hand. Suzie wants to be a faerie — craves the freedom, immortality, most of all the _security_. She's afraid of death and darkness and wants the power to combat them. But that kind of power can run away with you, turn you into something you never meant to be."

She sighed, leaning back against the table. "I scared Suzie with that — and Ianto too. Ianto, I think, would be fine — he's all about self-control — but I still want him to think about it really carefully, because there's no going back. But I'm not sure about Suzie. She worries me. And unless she becomes a lot wiser and more stable in the years to come … well."

"You won't let her … turn?" finished Tosh.

Gwen shrugged. "Might not be my choice. Depends whether she has enough faerie blood, enough faerie genes that they can activate and take over."

"That's how it works? You need faerie genes to become one?"

Gwen cocked her head and fixed Tosh with a sharp, considering look. "Seems so. No one's done a scientific study. And we wouldn't like it if they did." A faint, gentle note of warning coloured the last sentence. Tosh acknowledged it with a nod, and Gwen relaxed.

"Do you know who Lisa is?" asked Tosh.

Gwen slouched like a weight had come onto her shoulders. "Ianto's lover. He lost her when she became a faerie. He wants to become one too in order to find her, but…" She grimaced. "Well. It's a complicated situation. I have my doubts as to whether it will work out."

Tosh scrunched her brow in confusion. "Wait, he knew about faeries before?" He hadn't given any indication of that…

But Gwen was shaking her head. "No, not beyond bedtime stories from his grandmother, anyway. He didn't put all the pieces together until after he met me."

Tosh's face cleared. "Oh. How sad… Poor Ianto."

"Yeah," said Gwen heavily. She huffed a sigh and pushed herself off the table. "Are you all right now?"

Tosh gave her a crooked smile. "Lot better. Thanks." She was still aching over the Owen-and-Suzie thing, but Gwen had at least put their pity in perspective. They were short-sighted and didn't understand her. Their loss.

Gwen smiled back. "Good. Now, do you know where to find this scavenger? I'd like a word with her."

Tosh hesitated for a second. Some part of her wanted to keep Mary a secret — just hers. But if she didn't tell Gwen, no doubt Gwen would find Mary on her own. "Sure. I can arrange that."

***

Gwen came home with Tosh that day. Mary was waiting outside Tosh's townhouse, as she had been the last two days. Mary went dead still for a moment at the sight of Gwen, then flicked the ash from the end of her cigarette and sauntered over. She looked Gwen over.

"Oh, you're one of the ones who don't exist." She crossed her arms — well, one arm — and held the cigarette up in the air, smirking. "One of two members of Torchwood that no one knows anything about. Jack Harkness has been kicking around for years — decades, even — but you just popped out of nowhere a few months ago, and the only thing anyone knows about you is that Gwen Cooper can't be your real name, because there's no record of you. Are you even Welsh?"

"You're one to talk," said Gwen in a smooth, even voice with a hint of danger. She was regarding Mary with an intensity Tosh had rarely seen.

Mary's gaze sharpened. She became less cocky, more watchful. "And what do you know about me?"

Gwen tilted her head, flared her nostrils and took a deep sniff. "I know you're something different."

Mary raised her eyebrows mockingly. " _Oh_ , well then! Pot, meet kettle. You're more than a little different yourself, aren't you?"

Gwen made an acknowledging noise in her throat. She smirked, and her eyes flashed gold. A charge in the air brought every hair on Tosh's body to attention. "I am," said Gwen. "And I'm dangerous." Just as Tosh was about to break in, seriously worried about where this was going, Gwen dropped the posturing and stared Mary straight in the eye. "Listen. I don't care about what sex you are, or even what species. All I care about is Tosh and whether she's happy. Which means that if you hurt her, physically or emotionally … I'm going to stuff you into a metal box and drop you to the bottom of the sea."

She turned to Tosh. "Yes, this is me appointing myself your overprotective older brother." She looked back at Mary. "Do we understand one another?"

Mary's face was unusually sober. "I think we do, yeah."

"How could you tell we're—?" Tosh tried to ask. It was hard to admit, hard to put into words.

"I can smell her on you," said Gwen simply. "Cinnamon and cigarette smoke and … something unidentifiable." She gave Mary a hard look.

"Oh," said Tosh. She considered the situation. "I always wanted an older brother."

Gwen shot her a grin, and Tosh had lots of warm, fuzzy feelings. Gwen clapped her on the shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow." And then to Mary, ominously, "Be seeing you." And she set off down the street, hands tucked in the pockets of her leather jacket. Tosh and Mary watched her go.

"Who is she, really?" asked Mary with a puzzled crinkle between her brows. " _What_ is she?"

Tosh looked at Mary and debated with herself for a moment. Gwen hadn't exactly been playing her cards close to her chest, there. Tosh took a guess that she wouldn't mind. "She's one of the Fair Kindred, as they call them here in Wales … also known as the People of Peace."

Mary stared at her. "A faerie? Those are real? I thought they were just a legend."

Tosh smiled. "Oh no. They're real. They're the most dangerous creatures on this planet, as far as I know. If we ever get properly invaded by aliens, they're our ace in the hole. Assuming we can convince them to help, anyway; they're a law unto themselves and don't usually give a damn about anybody else."

"She seems to give a damn about you," said Mary, looking back after Gwen. But she'd vanished when they'd taken their eyes off her.

"Ah, well." Tosh smiled. "Gwen's different." The word reminded her, and she turned to face Mary fully. "What did she mean, you're something different?"

"Oh, right, about that. I _was_ going to tell you…"

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter ended up being longer than I usually make chapters because, well, far too much of it is episode rehash, in my opinion, and I wanted it to have a good amount of original content.


End file.
